Speedwells

Plantain Family - Plantaginaceae

Blue Water Speedwell Veronica anagallis-aquatica

Native throughout Europe, Asia and much of Africa. Stems upright, to 60cm in height. Flowers pale-blue to lilac with darker veins, in long racemes emerging in pairs from opposite leaf bases. Flower stalks erecto-patent in fruit and at least as long as their bracts (usually longer) at flowering time.


Flowers	Flower	Seed capsules and bracts	Seed capsules

Ivy-leaved Speedwell Veronica hederifolia

Native throughout Europe, North Africa and western Asia. In disturbed ground and shady places.


Habit	Flower ssp. hederifolia	Flower ssp. lucorum	Leaf ssp. hederifolia

Pale Speedwell Veronica cymbalaria

Native throughout the Mediterranean Region to the Middle East. Frequent in shady places.


Habit	Habit	Habit	Flower

Flower	Leaves	Leaf	Seed capsule

Wall Speedwell Veronica arvensis

Native throughout Europe, North Africa and western Asia. In disturbed ground and shady places.


Habit	Flower	Leaf	Seed capsules on short pedicels

Common Field Speedwell Veronica persica

Native to the Transcaucasus and Iran, but now a cosmopolitan weed of cultivated ground. Flowers blue with a paler, almost white lower petal, although some early-flowering forms can have large, all blue flowers, or rarely pink. Although a recent introduction, this species has almost completely ousted our native field speedwells. All field speedwells have the flowers solitary in the leaf axils, not clustered into spikes. Told from the other field speedwells by the seed capsules, the two halves of which are very widely divergent.